Snow Falling on Bluegrass (17 page)

“Well, they set the bar pretty low. So what brings you out here to the ‘squirrel crap' section?”

“Barely contained fits of impotent rage?”

Will gave the little block of wood a particularly vicious swipe with his knife. “Look, hon, I don't know much about everybody here, but I know enough to see that something's not right with Charlie. I'm telling you, I've seen the way the man looks at you. This is not a guy who wants to cause you pain.”

“Doesn't really make up for the fact that he did.”

Will's hand slipped and the little duck-lump lost what looked like an important piece of beak. Maybe it was a turtle now, after all. “I'm going to tell you a story and then I'm going to leave you alone.”

“Does the story involve vampires or werewolves?”

“No.”

“Then my interest has waned.”

He continued as if I hadn't spoken. “When I was sixteen, I was dating a girl named Cindy MacKenzie. Now, I was crazy in love with that girl. Long blond hair, big brown doe eyes, a body that—”

“Keep talking and I'm repeating this story to Bonnie.”

Will shrugged. “I was in love with Cindy, but she had this asshole boyfriend named Merle. A real macho football idiot with the whole ugly-drunk-scenes-at-keggers and cheating-with-the-nearest-available-cheerleader package. If any guy so much as looked at Cindy, he'd crush him like a bug. And as much as I wanted Cindy for my own, I convinced myself that she was never going to leave Merle and I might as well get on with my life. So I started dating my friend Jenny Lee. She wasn't exactly the love of my life, but I liked her a lot. But once we started dating, Cindy dumped Merle.”

“Because she was jealous?”

“I like to think so.”

“And then you broke up with Jenny Lee and started dating Cindy?” I asked, my tone hopeful.

“No, I stayed with Jenny Lee for a few years, until after we graduated from high school and she decided to go away to college.”

“But Cindy ended up with some really nice guy from 4-H?”

He pursed his lips and shook his head. “No, she didn't date anybody for years, not until graduation, at least.”

“So Cindy ended up alone and you ended up dating someone you had lukewarm feelings for? That's the saddest freaking story I've ever heard.”

“No, no, see, because when Cindy showed up at our ten-year class reunion, she explained the whole thing. She'd liked me for almost as long as I'd liked her. But she didn't know how I felt and didn't want to risk pissing off Merle and putting a target on my back if I didn't feel the same way. Seeing me with someone else was the only thing that convinced her to break up with Merle. She said even if it didn't work out between us, being alone was better than being with Merle.”

“But that means Merle the hyperaggressive creeper sort of won, since Cindy ended up alone. How is that fair?”

Will shrugged, his face an infuriating mix of impassive and cheerful. “It's not, really, but it's still a nice story. Losing her chance with someone she really liked because of Merle was her first big clue that he was not a good person to have in her life. She moved out of Mud Creek as soon as she graduated. Majored in psychology and works as a family counselor. Married a very nice orthodontist and lives in Orlando.”

I frowned at him.

“And Merle?

“Got arrested for trying to have unnatural relations with the water return at the county pool.”

“Augh.”

“There's a lot of suction.”

“I get it,” I said, shuddering. “So what is the point of this emotionally traumatizing fable?”

“That sometimes, we don't know what we're missing until someone shows us. And before you get mad at Charlie, you should think about why you're so mad at him. We don't get angry with people who can't hurt us. And the people we care about? They're the only ones that can really hurt us. I mean, you've called Darrell names and threatened his most delicate manly parts, but even Bonnie said that she's only seen that little mushroom cloud over your head when it comes to Charlie.”

I frowned, chewing my lip thoughtfully.

“See? Gave you something to think about there, didn't I?”

“No, not at all.” I shook my head vehemently and pivoted toward the door. I was going right back up to my room. I was wrong. I wasn't ready to see anyone yet. I wasn't ready to face my coworkers. I was retreating to my fortress of solitude, and I was taking the bag of Oreos I had snagged from the dining room snack table.

“You know, this is quality wisdom I'm droppin' out here,” Will called after me. “People in Mud Creek appreciate my stories!”

11

In Which Closet Karma Bites Me on the Ass

After an afternoon catching up on office-related e-mails and voice mail, I decided to come down from my tree house of seclusion and join the others for dinner. Not because of Will's disturbing anecdote, but because the Oreos could only hold me for so long. Also, because screw Charlie, that's why.

I thought about Will's twisted backwoods love story while wrapping up my self-exile. What exactly was I supposed to take away from this tale of woe? Was I supposed to feel bad for Charlie/Will for having waited so long for the clueless girl they loved? Was I supposed to understand why they each moved on? Mostly, I felt sorry for Cindy, the girl who got left behind . . . and whoever had to pry Merle loose from the pool filter.

When I came down to the dining room, Charlie was sitting at one of the largest tables with a freshly shaved Tom and Jacob. All three of them looked absolutely miserable.

Good; Charlie had it coming.

And Jacob and Tom had been too attached to their facial hair anyway.

The cooking crew had produced a lovely meal of spaghetti and garlic bread, which I planned to avoid, because it's difficult to be all badass and unattainable if you have vampire-repellent breath. Luke was helping Theresa distribute the plates when he saw me walking through the door.

“Hey!” he exclaimed. “There she is! You feeling better, Kelsey?”

Charlie's head popped up at the mention of my name. I walked past him, putting an extra bit of swivel in my hips and looking through him as if he and his stupid soft lips didn't exist.

“How are you doing? Sadie said you were taking it easy on account of a migraine,” Luke said, giving Charlie a pointed look.

“Oh, I just needed a little rest and quiet, that's all.” I bestowed my best million-watt smile on Luke and accepted a plate of pasta.

He winked at me and sent an even more pointed look toward Charlie. “Save me a seat?”

I kicked the smile up a notch. “Of course.”

Charlie was staring holes through me as I walked past and sat with my back to him. Luke sat with me, asking me all sorts of questions about my day in “exile” and making me laugh with stories about the more colorful guests at the lodge. I stopped glancing over my shoulder at Charlie and concentrated on Luke and his above-par conversational skills. I had definitely learned my lesson. I was not ready to date or do anything similar to dating. But I could enjoy a pleasant dinner with a delicious piece of man-candy who just happened to be an intelligent, capable sweetheart of a person. There was no harm in that.

Sadie had organized a final death-match Scrabble tournament to decide spelling superiority before we headed back home. Thanks to my ranking from previous matches, I was pitted against Charlie, Bonnie, and Dorie Ann. I refused to make eye contact with Charlie, who was staring at me with those stupid, lost, beautiful green eyes. I just couldn't bring myself to look at him.

An hour into the game, I was losing, but I was definitely getting my point across.

“So with the triple letter score on the
R
, Kelsey gets a seventeen for ‘jerk,' ” Dorie Ann said, hesitantly adding my score to the tally. Bonnie tugged at the collar of her sweater, looking around for Will, who was sitting by the lobby fireplace reading
Field and Stream.

Sadie sidled up to the table to check our progress. She frowned when she saw the tiles I'd laid down, spelling “liar,” “cheat,” “betray,” and “jackass.”

“Wow, there appears to be a theme here,” she said, giving Charlie an apologetic glance. Charlie just shrugged, damn his shoulders.

Sadie cleared her throat and failed in her attempt to sound casual. “Hey, Kelsey, Luke says there's some extra towels in the storage closet by the service elevator. He said you know where it is from your wanderings around the hotel. Could you go get some for us?”

I nodded, pushing away from the table. “That's okay, I was losing anyway. I forfeit, guys.”

“One down, three to go!” Dorie Ann crowed in an evil villain voice. “Mwahahaha!”

“Really? We need new towels now?” I asked Sadie as we crossed the lobby.

“Not really, but everybody at the Scrabble table looked so miserable, I decided to do something drastic. You managed to suck the fun out of America's favorite board game, Kelsey. Honestly.” Sadie nodded, pressing Luke's keys into my hand. “But we have run through the first-floor supply of towels, and it couldn't hurt to get some more. I have to go talk to Luke about a conference call with the state fair director scheduled for tomorrow.”

“You don't need me around for that?”

“Nah, all of the logistics are set up. Just get those towels so I don't have to wander around spooky hotel hallways fetching them.”

“Thanks for making it sound so appealing.”

“Hey, I'll even start your dish duty shift for you tomorrow. Have I mentioned you have dish duty tomorrow? Because you do, twice, payback for disappearing on us for almost two days.”

“Ew. You just increased my enthusiasm for this task tenfold. I am all about avoiding dishpan hands. I'll be right back.”

“Thanks.”

I ambled down the hall to the housekeeping storage room, wondering why new towels were such a priority when we were supposed to be leaving this place in a day or so. But considering my recent temporary disappearance, if it made Sadie happy for me to wander around abandoned hallways in search of linens, I would do it.

The housekeeping closet unlocked easily enough. I fumbled around unsuccessfully for the light switch, but I could see that while the closet contained everything a janitorial engineer could possibly need to disinfect and deodorize the lodge, there were no towels on these shelves. “What the . . . ? Sadie? There are no towels in here,” I groaned into the darkness.

Oh, no. I'd let my depression and anger fog me up. I'd walked right into a trap, a trap of my own design.

I heard a footfall near the door and turned to see Sadie standing in the doorway. She smiled sweetly at me, dangling the key ring from her fingertips. “Vengeance is mine, sayeth your boss.”

I knew I shouldn't have left those keys in the doorknob.

“Sadie, don't!” I cried just as the door slammed in my face.

Also, I shouldn't have walked into this closet without questioning Sadie more closely.

I pounded on the door, yelling threats to specific areas of my boss's anatomy if she didn't release me from this mini-prison. A warm hand slid over my shoulder from behind and I screamed, stomping backward on someone's foot and jamming my elbow back into his sternum.

“Augh!” the person yelled, far too close to my ears. I turned to see Charlie hunching over, bracing his palms against his knees. “I can taste my own spleen. Is that bad?”

“Yes, and you know what else is bad?” I grunted, smacking his shoulders. “Hiding in the recesses of closets so you can scare the crap out of girls you've recently deceived.

“And you suck, Sadie!” I shouted through the door.

“Turnabout closet imprisonment is fair play!” came her muffled reply. “And I'm going to be nice to you and tell you there's water and food on the bottom shelf. I won't hide your supplies from you.”

I heard Bonnie call, “For the record, Kelsey, I didn't think this was a good idea! I voted against this plan.”

“Well, for the record, Sadie and Josh keep sneaking off to have sex!” I exclaimed.

Yes, I knew I was living in a glass pillow fort when it came to the subject, but I was stuck in a closet. I had to strike out however I could.

“And I suppose the key to finding our way out of the closet is hidden somewhere in here with us?” I yelled.

“Nope!” Sadie called. “I have the keys in my hand. That's the only way out. And I won't let you out until you talk through this. I love you both too much to let you continue acting like idiots. I'll come back to check on you in an hour.”

“This is inhuman!” I yelled as I heard her footsteps retreating. “You are violating the Geneva conventions! And the girl code! And democracy!

“Why aren't you more upset about this?” I asked Charlie, who was leaning against the wall, still cradling his hands over his sternum.

“Sadie told me what she was planning to do. I thought it was a good idea. Before the sternum injury. It's like your bony elbows are made of concrete.”

“I would apologize, but I think you had that coming. How the hell did you get here before me?” I asked, sliding to the floor, leaning against the door.

“Luke showed me a shortcut through the service corridor.”

Et tu, Ranger Luke?

“Kelsey, we need to talk.”

I tried to ignore him. I sat against the door, staring at him and not saying a word.

He knelt close to me. “Please, Kelsey.”

“You stay on your side of the closet,” I told him. “I am not above hitting you with industrial-size cleaning products.”

“Fine.” He sighed, leaning against the opposite wall.

“How could you?” I demanded. “I don't even think I'm mad at you on the jilted lady level—”

“I didn't jilt you!”

“I feel betrayed as your friend. Friends try to prevent each other from being emotionally sucker-punched. You know what I just went through; how could you let me go through it again?”

“I was wrong not to tell you about Laura. But I was being honest when I said that the relationship wasn't serious. I stopped dating other girls a while ago, but she's seeing other people. In fact, she's seeing everybody but me, because I broke it off with her just before we came up here.”

Wait.

What?

“I broke things off with her,” he said. “She's a lovely girl, but it didn't feel right to let things get any more serious with her when my heart wasn't really in it. The breakup was actually very cordial. Her heart wasn't really in it, either. There were a dozen or so texts from Laura talking about it—and no, I didn't break up with her by text, I called her, thank you—and when you said you'd read her texts, I assumed you'd read the ones where she said she was sad to see things end with us, but hoped I found someone really nice.”

“I didn't see any texts like that,” I told him.

He took his phone out of his back pocket and showed me the text stream with Laura. “I see that. I don't know how, but they're missing from my text folder. And considering the texts we exchanged Friday night included me telling her that you seemed more annoyed with Darrell than usual and since I was hoping to have some time with you this weekend, that seemed kind of important. I was hoping that you were on the verge of breaking up with him. I didn't realize that it had already happened. And if I had known, I would have smiled even more. Shamelessly.”

“You talked to your ex about me?”

“I've told her all about you,” he swore. “I told her there was someone else when I ended it between us, and she had questions for me. For the record, she also thinks Darrell is a douche bag.”

“So why did you look so damn pleased with the texts she was sending you Friday night?”

“Because we were still able to talk to each other without it being weird! I really like Laura and I didn't want to lose her friendship.”

“And why did you send her flowers?”

“It was her birthday yesterday. I arranged for them before we left town. Like I said, we're friends. And I felt a little guilty for dumping her right before her birthday.”

I pursed my lips. “Okay, why did you change your Facebook status to ‘It's complicated'?”

“Because clearly I'm not meant to be in a relationship with anybody but you—when I try, I screw it up. Because you and I were about to spend the weekend together and I had my hopes up. Because I prayed that maybe just this once, it was for good and you would look at me and see someone you wanted to be with. But based on past behavior, I knew you probably wouldn't leave Darrell. And despite all that, I still wanted . . . you. I still wanted you. And I can't think of anything more complicated than that.”

“You have an answer for everything, don't you?” I said, narrowing my eyes at him.

He rolled his eyes and showed me his screen again as he opened the FaceChat app and searched for “Laura” on his contact list.

“How do you even have reception in here?” I asked as the phone rang.

“I have a special ‘if you get locked in a closet by your insane boss' calling plan,” he retorted.

“She really is nuts sometimes,” I agreed.

Laura's perfect, symmetrical face filled the screen and a sweet, smooth talk-radio voice filled the tiny closet space. “Hello? Charlie, are you okay? I've been worried.”

“I'm fine, Laura, thanks. Listen, I have Kelsey here with me—”

“Really?” The sophistication of the voice gave way to schoolgirl squeals. “Is she listening?” I waved awkwardly at the phone and she squealed again. “Oh! I'm so excited to talk to you! Charlie talks about you all the time, even when we were togeth— Oooh, I just realized this conversation is potentially very awkward.” She pinched her lips together. “Sorry.”

Charlie laughed. “Sorry to drag you into it Laura. But Kelsey would like to know if we are still dating.”

“And why would she want to know that?” Laura asked, grinning at the phone. “You know, this is the perfect time for me to play the crazy wronged ex-girlfriend.”

“Laura.” Charlie sighed.

“No, we are not still seeing each other,” Laura said. “Charlie broke up with me in a very gentlemanly fashion more than a week ago. He was so nice about it. And I actually think the two of us can still be friends.”

I closed my eyes and winced.

“Did I say something wrong?” Laura asked.

“No, but I did,” I groaned.

“Thanks, Laura,” Charlie said.

“It was great talking to you!” she cried. “Charlie's crazy about you! He really—”